Technical Tank Tasting

Last Friday 4th December we organized an informal tasting of all our 2010 wines with a bunch of wine-lovers, including some experienced tasters, again at La Cave du Petit.

    pending: photo 1 (have misfiled photos of tasting)



The purpose was partly social, ie to spend a pleasant evening talking about and drinking wine in good company; the purpose was also partly technical, in that I was hoping to get some feedback on the wines in general and specifically on which wines would be suitable for oaking and which best drunk unoaked, and also opinions on any possible interesting blends of varieties.

So a few days before I bottled one bottle of each wine straight from the tanks.

   pending: photo 2 (have misfiled photos of tasting)

Also, to make things more interesting, I made a special label for each bottle with a number on it, and was only going to reveal the variety at the end of the tasting. I thought it would be more fun that way and make everyone think more while they were tasting!

Here's what we tasted:

1. Airén. Normal fermentation; our 'flagship' wine that we've been making every year since we started 8 years ago

2. Airén. Carbonic maceration; an experiment

3. Airén. On skins; an experiment (orange wine)

4. Tempranillo; grapes bought in from organic neighbour

5. Tempranillo; our own; our other 'flagship' wine that we've been making for 6 years

6. Graciano; grapes bought in from organic neighbour

7. Shiraz; grapes bought in from organic neighbour

8. Petit Verdot; grapes bought in from organic neighbour

9. Garnacha; grapes bought in from organic neighbour

Why so many grapes bought in? Several reasons: firstly, we were bored making only Tempranillo and Airén year after year, and we wanted to experiment and try new varieties. Life is short! One thing leads to another! So we may or may not do buy in grapes again next year. We are feeling our way forward. We need to expand our production while maintaining quality, and buying in grapes was a way that we wanted to try. We've also taken on a second vineyard this year which we'll be managing ourselves, which is another way. We'll try anything once!

   pending: photo 3 (have misfiled photos of tasting)




   pending: photo 4 (have misfiled photos of tasting)


Conclusions? Feedback? Well, things didn't quite work out the way I'd visualized them playing out. I'd imagined that we'd all taste the first wine, then that each person would comment one at a time, and that I'd have time to write it down; then onto the second wine, etc. Then I'd summarize my notes and post a beautiful tasting note post. How naive! And me living in Spain for 15 years! What happened of course was that everyone started talking at once, split off into little groups of 2 or 3, wandered off to talk on their cell-phone, to change the music, to go to the toilet, to get something to eat, etc; then we tasted the bottles out of order and started making blends in our own little groups, and generally being chaotic, and having 3 conversations at once across the room! Basically, we had small party as opposed to a tasting, and of course a great time was had by all!

    pending: photo 5 (have misfiles photos of tasting)

The minimum, lowest-comon-denominator feedback I've been able to synthesize after 3 hours of partying and tasting (with no written notes whatsoever) was this:

Whites: Airéns (1) and (2) can be drunk now, but Airén (3) needs more time. Some liked Airén (1) because it's slightly pétillant, and is very fruity in the nose and mouth, and with a surprisingly long finish. Others didn't like it because they thought it lacking in acidity and that it had too much residual sugar.

Reds: None are ready to be drunk now. The one closest to being ready and which most people though would be good drunk young and unoaked was the Tempranillo (4). The only other consensus with a majority was that the Garnacha (9) would also be fine unoaked as it was the most distinctive.

So, now what? Well, nothing, for the time being! We're just going to let all the wines sit there over the winter, to settle and to evolve, and in February or March we'll have another tasting party and maybe decide what to do after that!

Map of vineyard, Tasting notes, and a Coupage

Last Sunday (8 November 2009) I was in the vineyard (Carabaña, Spain) bright and early, as I wanted to make a detailed map, showing the state of each individual vine. I didn't have time to finish but I did manage to map out about 600 vines or so, ie about half the number of vines in the vineyard. On my map I marked:
1. Vines that are OK (with a dot)
2. 'Wild' vines (with an 'S') (Salvaje = wild in Spanish)
3. Dead vines (with an 'M') (Muerto = dead)
4. Spaces where there is no vine (with a 'na') (nada = nothing)

'Wild' vines means that at some point in the past (before we took over the vineyard 6 years ago) the vinifera insert did not take and the rootstock itself sprouted. These need to be pruned way back and grafted again with a vinifera variety.

(pending photo of 'wild' vine)
(sorry, Blogger is having problems with umploading images)

Dead vines need to be uprooted and replanted

(pending photo of dead vine)

Empty spaces with no vine also need to be replanted.

(pending photo of empty spaces)

The time to do this is around March/April when the sap is just starting to flow, but not too much. The top priority is to plant new vines in the empty spaces; second priority is to uproot the dead vines and plant new vines, and third (if there is time and money leftover!) to prune and graft the wild vines.

After that, it was off to the winery to meet Juan for a preliminary tasting by ourselves, before letting the experts loose on our wines. We had eight (8) different wines to taste this year:

1. Young white 2009 (100% Airén) - Lot I
2. Young white 2009 (100% Airén) - Lot II (same as above, but grapes harvested 2 weeks later)
3. Young red 2009 (100% Garnacha/Grenache) Carbonic Maceration
4. Young red 2009 (100% Garnacha/Grenache) Conventional fermentation
5. Young red 2009 (100% Tempranillo) Conventional fermentation
6. Young red 2009 (100% Cabernet Sauvignon) Conventional fermentation
7. Crianza 2008 (100% Tempranillo, 6 months in oak barrel)
8. 'Young' red 2008 (100% Tempranillo)

(pending: our tasting notes)


Coupage (Tempranillo and Garnacha) in action



Spontaneous and appropriate vine around the door (of Vinos Ambiz Organic and Sustainable Winery)
We didn't actually plant the vine on purpose. It must have sprouted sponaneously one year from a stray pip during the crushing. We noticed it at some point and we trained it round the door. The rest of it is posing on a crate at the moment until we get round to training it all over the wall and maybe even make a shady pergola one year.